Inhabiting the meanwhile: rebuilding home and restoring predictability in a space of waiting

Around the world, millions of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees encounter countless barriers to their movement and endure prolonged periods of waiting, resulting in frequent moments of immobility. This paper explores a paradox of experiences of mobility: how asylum seekers reconcile long-term future projects with immediate futures during moments of waiting. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at the border between Mexico and Guatemala, I examine how asylum seekers balance their future projects within restrictive spatial–temporal contexts. I find that they actively inhabit spaces that they consider and wish to be transitory. Through particular tactics, they inhabit the meanwhile, while actively resisting to forego their future projects elsewhere. I analyse two sets of practices: place-making materialised in the construction of ‘home’ and temporal tactics to restore predictability and counter the uncertainty imposed by bureaucratic procedures. Inhabiting the meanwhile highlights asylum seekers’ agency within restrictive spatial–temporal contexts and allows for future-making possibilities in a space of waiting.